PREMIERE of Calendar Girls film in Skipton! That is the type of headline the people of Craven hope to see in the New Year when Harbour Pictures announces the long-awaited movie's release date.

The Herald is backing a campaign to have the film, based on the Rylstone and District WI ladies who bared all for a charity calendar, premiered in the area where it all began.

The film stars some of Britain's best known female actors: Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Penelope Wilton, Annette Crosby, Celia Imrie and Geraldine James.

They are not playing the parts of the original ladies, and are not even using their names. However the story is based around the events which took the world by storm.

Little did the ladies who classed themselves as ordinary housewives know that what started off as an off-the-cuff idea by member Tricia Stewart would end up so big.

Tricia was later to write a book "Calendar Girl" outlining the inside story of the experience.

The magnificent 11 were Tricia, Moyra Livesey, Beryl Bamforth, Angela Baker, Lynda Logan, Christine Clancy, Ros Fawcett, Lynn Knowles, Sandra Sayers, Lani Pickles and Rita Turner.

Later Lynda, Tricia, Angela, Beryl, Ros and Christine were to detach themselves from the original group after disagreeing over the forthcoming film.

Right from the start the calendar was to raise money for leukaemia research. That particular charity was chosen because Angela's husband, John, an officer with the Yorkshire Dales National Park, was suffering from the disease when the idea was mooted.

He thought it was an hilariously brilliant idea and looked forward to seeing the end result in the style of the early Pirelli calendar.

Sadly he died before it became reality and never got to see his wife as Miss February.

He also never got to see his favourite flower, the sunflower, taken as the Calendar Girls' symbo. It appears in each photograph.

The launch of the calendar at the Devonshire Arms at Cracoe in April 1999 attracted dozens of newspaper and television journalists. It was media mayhem.

Nothing like that had ever been done before - certainly not by the WI with its image of tweeds and twinsets, jam and Jerusalem. Everyone said it was nothing short of brilliant.

Soon the world's press was clambering to interview the group of housewives who had become celebrities overnight. The women took it in their stride.

In eight short months, £320,000 had been raised. The "girls" were staggered, but continued to give their own time up to either attend London-based celebrity dinners, give talks locally, or even jet across the Atlantic to promote the calendar in America.

The USA was later to commission its own calendar using the girls' shots - but it was an 18-month version, rather than the original 12 month.

It was inevitable that someone would come up with the idea of making a movie, but it was to create discord among the group.

An argument over who should shoot the movie split the ladies.

Five wanted Yorkshire comedienne and writer Victoria Wood to do it, while six voted for Harbour Pictures, an English filmmaker overseen by an American company linked to Disney. The latter got the majority vote.

The five in the Victoria Wood camp refused to sign a deal with Harbour Pictures and the film has been written around them.

"The five who did not sign are not involved in the film in any way. Harbour Pictures managed to get around the fact the stories of only six of the original 11 are detailed beautifully," said Calendar Girl Lynda Logan (Miss July).

The six women who voted for Harbour Pictures formed the Baker's Half Dozen, and included Angela Baker, after whom the new group was named.

They continued in their own right attending functions, giving talks and opening events, still using the sunflower symbol.

In addition to the total of £331,000 raised from calendar sales, a further £320,000 has been raised by the Baker's Half Dozen and from the sale of the American calendar.

"We continue to attend functions raising money for the charity and are booked up to 2004," said Mrs Logan, whose husband, Terry, took the original calendar photographs.

But we will have to wait and see where or when the movie, filmed all around Craven, will be premiered. As yet there is no release date, and while having the first showing in Skipton is not beyond the realms of possibility, it remains a hope.

Mrs Logan said: "Having the first showing in Skipton is something we have hoped for all along. But whether that happens or not, we just hope it will be a box office hit and continue to raise money for leukaemia research.

"On top of the money already in, the girls from the Baker's Half Dozen, plus my husband Terry, and Angela's son and daughter are putting all the royalties earned to the charity. If the film does well and we reach the £1 million mark we will all be thrilled," said Mrs Logan.

Mrs Stewart added: "At least if we cannot get the first showing in Skipton arranged, when it does come we will be donating the proceeds from one of the evenings to the charity."